Lubricating jellies and other lubricants are used in a large variety of medical procedures such as ultrasound imaging and examination of orifices. In pelvic and rectal exams, lubricants increase patient comfort by reducing friction that can irritate delicate tissues. Lubricating jelly is typically supplied in large squeeze tubes or bottles, or in single-use packets. For the former, a health care provider will squeeze a suitable amount of the lubricant onto gloved fingers and then apply the lubricant to the patient. In cases where a health care provider performs multiple examinations in a day (e.g., an obstetrician/gynecologist), use of squeeze tubes or bottles can create a significant risk of cross-contamination—i.e., bodily fluids or tissues from one patient are inadvertently transferred to another patient. Although the health care provider will change gloves between each patient, if the provider handles the tube or bottle with gloves used to examine a patient, there is a good chance that the tube or bottle will become contaminated with that patient's bodily fluids or tissue. Because few health care providers clean the lubricant tube or bottle between patients, the next use of the tube or bottle can transfer a previous patient's bodily fluids or tissue first onto the gloves of the health care provider and then onto the next patient.
Many practitioners are concerned about this issue and try to avoid contamination by using only one hand to contact the patient and the other hand to obtain lubricant from the squeeze tube or bottle. This of course can be quite awkward or even impossible to perform—especially in the case where two hands are required for the patient examination. As a result, lubricant containers are often contaminated—sometimes visibly so.
To overcome this problem, medical lubricants are also sold in single-use foil packets that are torn open for each use. Unfortunately, opening an individual packet of gel can be a messy and cumbersome process. And occasionally, a packet will cut the health care provider's protective glove—a dangerous and unsanitary situation for both the practitioner and the patient.